


Nothing Compares

by paperclipbutterfly



Series: Non-Canon Black Jack One-Shots [1]
Category: Black Jack Original Comics, Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Apologies, Birthday Fluff, Birthday Presents, F/M, He tries so hard, falls so short, jack savage is a dork bun, love him anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:22:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbutterfly/pseuds/paperclipbutterfly
Summary: Jack Savage tries his best to apologize to his co-worker Cynthia Walker for missing her birthday celebration. Will she accept his apology?





	Nothing Compares

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aoimotion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aoimotion/gifts).



> A little birthday gift for aoimotion. Cynthia Walker and Maria O'Connor are her characters, and I have her permission to write this sickeningly sweet piece of birthday fluff. Enjoy.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Jack Savage had just put his paw up to the door to knock when Maria O’Connor sidled up beside him out of nowhere humming, smiling that devious knowing half smile that made his bones itch with irritation. While it was often a mistake to rise to her bait, he stopped and considered.

“And why is that?” he asked evenly, bringing his paw back and stiffening as though he were about to engage in mortal combat.

The meerkat widened her grin and moved a stray hair off her forehead casually, reveling in his obvious distress. “She is _apocalyptically_ cross with you.”

“Well, I can’t apologize from out here, now can I?”

“You think you’ll get as far as an apology?” she said through a hearty laugh. “Oh, my dear sweet Bunnyboy… you are delusional.”

Jack turned back to the door, resolved to continue his quest… even if it might mean his untimely demise. “She deserves one, so I intend to try.”

Maria shrugged, and started away down the hall. “Alright… it’s your funeral.” She waved her paw high over her head, as though tossing her words behind her at him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The hare watched her leave from the corner of his eye until she turned the corner, and then raised his arm again to knock. He hadn’t even made contact with the door when…

“Come in.”

Jack inhaled a sharp breath, which hit his lungs cold, though not nearly as frigid as those two words. He gulped and obeyed, turning the doorknob and allowing the door to creak inward. He flinched, half expecting something to come flying at his head the second it poked around the doorframe. The only thing that came hurtling toward him was silence.

Bone-chilling silence.

He stepped into Cynthia’s office and closed the door gently behind him. She was sitting at her computer desk, typing away so fast that her paws were a white blur moving over the keyboard. She was making a concerted effort not to look his way, but Jack could tell that the expression on her face was a stony one.

Jack Savage had been in battle, in more covert operations than he could count, threatened at gunpoint, and faced deadly enemies in more than a dozen countries across the world. Countless assignments that he almost hadn’t come home from. He would have preferred any life or death mission to what he was trying to do at that very moment.

He took a few more steps forward as he began, his mouth as dry as the Sahara. “Walker, I…”

“You have thirty seconds.” She still didn’t turn to face him, but spoke with a voice devoid of any warmth. “Say what you need to say _quickly_ , and then _get out.”_

Jack gulped. “I… that is…” God, where were the words he needed? He cleared away the sand in his throat, stood at attention, and plowed on. “I understand you’re upset with me, and you have every right to be. It’s inexcusable that I wasn’t present for your birthday celebration, and I want to apologize for that.”

“Twenty seconds left.”

“And I realize it doesn’t make up for it, but I do want you to know that I hadn’t forgotten about it. It’s just that… I hadn’t found the right gift for you, something worthy, and I had thought I could fit in just one more place, the next one would be it, just one more would be right. It wasn’t. Not any of them.”

A pause. The typing stopped. “Ten seconds left.”

“Of course you deserve only the best on your special day, but I’m sorry to say I failed to find it.” Jack sighed, and reached into his pocket as he stepped forward. “Fact is… nothing compares to you.” He set a key with a little tag attached to it on her desk and turned to leave. “However, if you should find something that you like in there, it’s yours. Happy birthday, Walker.”

Cynthia closed her eyes with a soft whine up at the ceiling once the door had closed again. _You idiot,_ her mind raged at him. The one thing she had wanted for her birthday was the one thing—the one _mammal_ —who wasn’t there.

She picked up the key and turned it over in her paw, wondering at its purpose. The tag read “Tundratown Storage” and had a faded address beneath it. She gripped it tightly and grabbed her coat before sprinting for the door.

*****

There were no words. If Cynthia wanted to describe what she was looking at, she didn’t know if she could. Her voice had failed her, her breath coming short, too short to form coherent sentences, too little oxygen to her brain for lucid thoughts.

It admittedly wasn’t the largest storage unit, but it was filled to the brim, simply bursting with loveliness. Clothing, soft dresses in pastels and deep hues and celestial patterns. Baubles, priceless charms and trinkets from half a world away. An iPaw, for some reason.

It was beautiful, and terrible, and nothing she thought it would be and very nearly everything she hoped it would. But the fact was that this little space could have held the moon and the sun and the stars themselves… that wasn’t what she’d wanted for her birthday.

All the same… it would be just about impossible to continue being annoyed with him now. At least, not about this. _Damn you, Jack Savage._ One of the many things that she couldn’t stand about him was how difficult it was to stay angry with him for very long.

“Do you see anything you like?”

Cynthia startled and turned with a stifled gasp. Jack stood just inside the open entrance, sharp and smart-looking as ever, with his dark coat collar turned up against his cheeks and a carefully inquiring look in his eyes.

She allowed him the tiniest smile, only just the tiniest.

“Yes,” she said. “I do.”


End file.
